in 
cr* 


GIFT  OF 


low  "Reason -Why" 
Copy  Dried  Up 
a  County 


Reprinted  From 
JUDICIOUS  ADVERTISING 


Published  by 

American  Issue  Publishing  Company 

WESTERVILLE,  OHIO 


How  "Reason- Why"  Copy  Dried  Up  a 
County. 

Reprinted  from  "Judicious  Advertising" 

Many  are  the  uses  of  good  advertising 
creating  appetites  and  thirsts,  but  simon- 
pure  "reason  why"  copy  had  a  new  work- 
out a  few  weeks  ago  in  Lenawee  County, 
Michigan — in  which  it  turned  the  trick  with 
the  biggest  "dry"  majority  in  Michigan. 

The  copy  writer  first  laid  out  plans  for  a 
beautiful  "human  interest"  campaign  that 
would  bring  sobs  from  a  murderer,  but 
his  "dry"  ideals  were  badly  spilled  on  find- 
ing that  the  voters  were  talking  against 
local  option  rule  on  the  basis  of  the  possi- 
bility of  higher  taxes. 

So  taking  a  new  tack  and  getting  right 
down  to  the  commercial  aspect  of  the 
thing,  a  campaign  which  led  off  with  a  talk 
of  rule  by  outside  "booze  barons,"  followed 
by  actual  facts  and  figures  showing  how 
taxes  are  really  cut  down  by  the  elimination 
of  saloons,  was  decided  upon. 

The  first  ad  of  the  two  weeks*  campaign 
of  "reason  why"  copy  had  for  its  keynote 
"shall  the  whiskey  machine  of  the  United 
States  rule  Lenawee  County — and  you?" 

For  an  entire  week  th<?  cloud,  which  pre- 
vented Voters  frdni  k)eking:at  the  sentimen- 
tal si^le  of  the  question,  was  hammered 
away  -at,  facts  arid  figures,  -even  United 
States  government  reports  being  brought 
into  play. 

It  was  necessary  to  lift  the  cloud  of  com- 
mercialism, in  a  measure,  selfishness,  which 
was  keeping  the  sentimental  side  in  the  dark. 

2 


The  copy  writer  realized  that  the  moral 
phase  of  the  situation  was  bound  to  turn  the 
trick,  if  six  weeks  hard  pounding  of  "grass 
growing  in  the  streets,"  "higher  taxes"  and 
"Sahara"  arguments  by  the  "wet"  campaign 
manager  could  be  •vercome  in  the  short 
space  of  a  week.  Page  and  half-page  news- 
paper copy  was  used. 

So  an  information  bureau  was  established 
at  the  local  option  headquarters  and  every 
piece  of  copy  that  went  out  to  the  two  daily 
papers  and  fifteen  weeklies  and  semi-week- 
lies carried  a  coupon,  called  the  "free  in- 
formation coupon."  Voters  were  asked  to 
write  upon  the  ten  lines  in  the  two-column 
coupon  any  questions  which  were  not  quite 
clear  in  their  minds  and  they  would  be  im- 
partially answered,  no  matter  what  the  re- 
sult. Whether  the  reader's  'inclinations 
were  "wet"  or  "dry"  he  was  asked  to  sub- 
mit his  doubt,  no  matter  what  its  nature,  to 
the  information  bureau. 

This  gave  a  splendid  opportunity  to  get 
"under  their  skins,"  talk  to  them  by  the 
hour  with  "dry"  arguments  upon  the  very 
questions  upon  which  their  votes  depended. 
It  also  gave  a  good  resume,  based  on  the 
law  of  averages,  of  what  was  nearest  to  the 
voters'  hearts — what  to  talk  to  them  about. 

Its  working  was  beautifully  illustrated  in 
the  case  of  a  wealthy  young  man,  of  con- 
siderable influence  in  a  very  "wet"  section 
of  the  county.  As  was  usual,  the  letter  was 
turned  over  to  a  member  of  the  anti-saloon 
organization  acquainted  with  the  sender  of 
the  coupon,  and  was  answered  in  every 
phase,  with  the  result  that  return  mail 


2729*45 


brought  the  significance  that  his  vote  would 
be  "dry"  and  enclosed  was  a  contribution  to 
the  anti-saloon  league's  campaign. 

The  copy  writer  attempted  to  hook  up 
the  business  aspect  to  the  anti-saloon  league 
copy  as  strongly  as  was  possible  under  the 
circumstances,  his  reasoning  being  that  a 
voter  naturally  expected  the  church  and 
ministers  to  be  "dry";  consequently  when 
the  arguments  were  advanced  by  "we  busi- 
ness men  who  are  backing  the  fight  against 
the  open  saloon,"  they  carried  considerable 
weight,  for  the  business  men,  naturally  look- 
ed upon  the  side  most  helpful  to  the  county 
generally. 

An  attempt  was  made  to  form  a  business 
men's  association  to  stand  for  the  "dry" 
side,  but  in  view  of  the  fact  that  even  the 
business  men,  who  themselves  were  lending 
some  backing  to  the  campaign,  refused  to 
come  out  into  the  open,  because  of  the 
fear  that  the  election  might  go  "wet,"  the 
effort  was  abandoned. 

So  the  strongest  business  backing  which 
could  be  given  in  the  copy  was  that  of  "we 
business  men  who  are  backing  up  this  cam- 
paign." Even  that  took  the  "wets"  by  sur- 
prise and  while  they  were  said  to  have  had 
a  business  men's  association  behind  them, 
they  failed  to  make  any  effort  to  counteract 
the  apparent  results  of  the  coup. 

The  copy  writer  in  the  first  two  days  of 
the  campaign  corrected  the  mistake  of  talk- 
ing to  the  voter  in  the  third  person.  On  the 
third  day  of  the  campaign,  the  copy  which 
went  to  the  papers  completely  merged  the 
interests  of  the  men  behind  the  league  and 
4 


the  voters  and  made  the  play  that  "we" — 
the  voter  and  the  league — were  fighting  a 
common  enemy,  the  "outside  whiskey  ma- 
chine" had  a  noticeable  effect — simply  a  bit 
of  psychology  that  worked  out  to  the  de- 
sired end. 

"Arthur  Brisbane  type,"  8  point  bold- 
face, said  to  be  the  most  easily  read  type  in 
the  world  was  pitted  against  the  8  point 
Roman  of  the  "wet"  campaigners,  who  ran 
their  ads  as  reading  notices,  "which  were 
not  read,"  according  to  the  "dry"  copy 
writer. 

The  psychology  of  the  "dry"  campaign 
was  perfectly  worked  out  in  every  detail 
after  the  first  three  days  of  experience  be- 
gan to  give  the  ad-writer  the  proper  grip 
on  the  situation. 

Nearly  all  matter  was  set  two  column 
measure  in  8  and  10  point  boldface,  thereby 
taking  advantage  of  the  newspaper's  dis- 
play rates,  besides  making  it  three  or  four 
times  as  readable. 

Scientists  tell  us  that  the  human  eye  can 
grasp  only  four  short-length  words  at  a 
single  glance.  Except  for  the  first  day's 
ads,  no  more  than  five  words  ever  composed 
the  "dry"  headlines.  And  these  were,  for  the 
most  part,  in  very  black,  heavy  Gothic, 
which  made  the  letters  large,  because  of 
the  six  and  seven  column  width  of  the  ads. 
In  the  leading  county  daily  the  front  page 
was  secured  upon  days  when  two  sections 
composed  the  publication. 

"One  mistake  which  I  believe  was  made 
in    many   'dry'    campaigns,"    said   the    "dry" 
ad-writer,     "was     that     the     anti-saloonists 
55 


talked  too  much  in  their  ads  on  outside  ex- 
amples of  the  'dry'  regime — not  enough  on 
the  results  or  expected  results  in  their  own 
counties.  That  was  a  thing  which  was  re- 
ligiously avoided  in  the  Lenawee  campaign's 
last  two  weeks.  Only  such  examples  as 
were  directly  applicable  or  could  be  made 
directly  applicable  to  Lenawee  County  were 
utilized  in  the  campaign.  As  a  sidelight  on 
the  campaign,  the  first  result  of  this  mode 
of  procedure  resulted  in  the  'wet'  campaign 
manager  stating  in  his  ads  that  'the  clever 
dry  ad-writer  is  a  mental  acrobat/  of  course, 
both  the  'wet'  manager  and  myself  were  im- 
ported for  the  election,  yet  strange  as  it  may 
seem,  the  people  being  fully  cognizant  of 
the  fact  that  outsiders  were  handling  the 
campaigns,  they  regarded  the  importation 
of  a  .man  to  handle  the  'dry'  side  as  pro- 
gressiveness  on  the  part  of  the  anti-saloon- 
ists  and  the  importation  of  the  'wet'  man  as 
an  imposition,  despite  the  fact  that  the  lat- 
ter had  been  given  six  weeks'  extra  time  to 
intrench  himself." 

Whenever  the  "dry"  cause  was  referred 
to  in  the  advertising  copy,  the  anti-saloon- 
ists  were  made  to  array  themselves  on  the 
voters'  side  by  continually  talking  how 
"WE  will  be  $1,000,000  richer  when  Lew- 
anee  is  dry."  Another  coup  which  was 
sprung  was  the  use  of  United  States  gov- 
ernment liquor  statistics  by  making  them 
directly  applicable  to  Lenawee  County  in 
this  manner:  by  taking  the  total  amount 
of  intoxicating  beverages  sold  in  the  entire 
country  and  dividing  by  the  number  of  sa- 
loons in  the  United  States  the  average  in- 


come  of  each  saloon  in  the  country  was 
figured.  This  multiplied  by  the  number  of 
saloons  in  Lenawee  County  gave  the  total 
yearly  drink  bill  of  the  county.  This  sum 
was  held  up  to  the  voters  and  they  were 
told  how,  every  year,  that  amount  of  money 
was  being  earned  within  the  county  and 
spent  in  Lenawee  saloons  to  go  outside  of 
the  county  and  do  the  county  no  good  what- 
ever— it  was  compared  with  the  cases  of 
Americans  making  big  piles  of  money  in 
the  United  States  and  then  taking  it  across 
the  water  to  England  to  spend  it. 

Naturally  enough  the  "wet"  side  disputed 
the  fact  that  every  Lenawee  County  saloon 
took  in  $7,500  a  year — the  amount  which 
was  averaged  down  from  United  States 
government  figures.  In  answer  to  their 
statement  the  entire  internal  revenue  com- 
missioner's digest  report  was  presented  in 
interesting  form,  so  as  to  be  easily  read- 
able and  the  statement  made  that  there  was 
no  reason  for  believing  that  the  Lenawee 
saloon  was  above  or  below  the  average — 
and  the  warning  "not  even  the  outside 
booze  barons  can  dispute  Uncle  Sam's 
bookkeeping"  served  to  clamp  the  lid  on  the 
"wet"  side  and  brought  forth  from  them 
only  the  weak  statement  that  "nobody 
knows  what  Lenawee  saloons  take  in."  That 
nailed  their  "higher  taxes"  talk. 

At  no  time  during  the  campaign  was 
there  expressed  any  "if"  as  to  the  probable 
outcome  of  the  campaign.  There  was  an- 
other bit  of  psychology  which  worked  ad- 
mirably. Every  ad  carried  with  the  atmos- 
phere of  certainty — no  bragging  that  Len- 


awee  "WOULD  go  dry" — simply  the  state- 
ments were  "WHEN  Lenawee  goes  'dry'  ". 
Neither  did  the  copy  ever  carry  any  threat 
to  the  voters  if  they  voted  "wet" — the  ad- 
mission was  never  even  made  that  any  of 
them  had  the  intention  of  voting  anything 
but  "dry"  and  on  that  basis  the  pretty  pic- 
ture of  "dry"  Lenawee  was  happily  painted 
for  them,  so  that  only  the  extremely  rabid 
"wets,"  those  who  were  not  by  any  means 
the  better  class  of  citizens,  were  able  to 
resist  the  "dry"  picture. 

One  headline,  which  with  the  ad  that 
ran  beneath  served  in  a  large  measure  to 
overcome  the  "wet's"  higher  tax  threat,  was 
"Lenawee  County  $1,000,000  Richer!"  It 
must  be  remembered  that  the  county  is  the 
third  richest  in  the  United  States  and  in- 
stead of  this  being  a  detriment  to  the  "dry" 
cause,  which  it  might  have  been  if  the  "wet" 
manager  had  utilized  the  opportunity  it 
proved  a  boon,  for  the  "dry"  ad-writer  held 
up  the  $1,000,000  that  two  "dry"  years  would 
leave  within  the  county  because  of  the  elim- 
ination of  the  saloon.  This  was  the  key- 
note of  that  ad:  "Let's  keep  this  Million 
ourselves  and  not  give  it  away  outside  the 
county — let's  increase  our  property  valuation 
by  a  million,"  and  thus  played  upon  the 
germ  for  more  which  exists  underneath  the 
shirt  of  the  man  who  has  accumulated  even 
a  little.  The  $1,000,000  represented  the 
Lenawee  County  drink  bill  for  two  years. 

Another  effective  mode  of  showing  the 

voters    of  the   county  the   alleged   injustice 

of  the   saloon   regime   was   the   comparison 

of  the  $500,000  a  year  drink  bill  with   the 

8 


yearly  saloon  license  $31,000  for  the  entire 
county's  saloons.  This  was  done  very  ef- 
fectively by  a  simple  comparative  illustra- 
tion, of  the  drink  bill  and  that  part  of  it 
which  came  back  to  the  county.  Side  by 
side  were  placed  two  solid  black  columns 
— one  of  them  was  sixteen  inches  in  height 
and  the  other  one  inch  in  height.  The  form- 
er, as  indicated  directly  beneath  it  repre- 
sented Lenawee's  drink  bill  and  the  latter 
Lenawee's  revenue  from  the  saloon.  Then 
the  query  was  propounded:  "Does  it  pay 
Lenawee?"  This  all  had  the  effect  of  shat- 
tering the  "wet"  manager's  talk  of  how  the 
removal  of  that  $31,000  was  going  to  work 
disastrously  for  the  tax-payers.  The  in- 
justice of  the  saloon  regime,  as  set  forth 
in  the  illustration  run  in  every  county  paper 
and  daily,  quickly  appealed  to  a  large  clique 
of  voters  who  had  been  led  to  believe  taxes 
were  surely  going  up. 

Then  by  a  tabulation  based  upon  state, 
county  and  United  States  government  fig- 
ures, the  voters  were  shown  just  how  the 
elimination  of  saloons  cut  down  taxes  in 
reality.  Lenawee's  annual  tax  was  divided 
up  into  various  departments  and  figures 
showed  the  number  of  inmates,  whose  pres- 
ence in  various  penal  and  charitable  insti- 
tutions was  caused  by  drink.  By  this  ac- 
curate process  of  deduction  of  the  money 
it  cost  to  take  care  of  drunks,  saloon-wreck- 
ed lives,  etc.,  it  was  quickly  shown  that  the 
$31,000  that  the  saloons  paid  was  far  too 
small  to  take  care  of  the  wrongs  which  they 
inflicted  upon  the  community.  This  argu- 
ment, one  of  the  most  effective  of  the  en- 
9 


tire  campaign  according  to  the  "dry"  copy- 
writer, was  tabulated  and  boxed  with  a 
heavy  black  border  and  step-head  "How 
'Dry'  Lenawee  Cuts  Down  Your  Taxes." 
It  was  kept  standing  throughout  the  cam- 
paign and  was  used  at  various  intervals 
when  its  presence  was  demanded  in  the 
day's  ads. 

Towards  the  end  of  the  campaign  more 
money  was  needed  by  the  Lenawee  County 
Anti-Saloon  League.  The  publicity  pace 
was  pretty  swift  and  for  four  days  a  plea 
for  more  cash,  not  a  begging  demand,  was 
made  in  a  straightforward  manner  under  the 
caption  of  "News  for  Lenawee  Drys."  It 
brought  a  flood  of  dollars  with  each  day's 
appearance  of  the  three-paragraph  plea  as 
part  of  the  regular  daily  "dry"  ad.  The  re- 
sult was  gratifying,  for  it  showed  the  effect 
that  the  reason-why  copy  was  having  upon 
the  "drys"  themselves,  who  thoroughly  ap- 
proved the  manner  in  which  the  publicity 
campaign  was  being  handled. 

It  was  planned  to  make  the  home  stretch 
of  the  campaign  a  pace  too  hot  for  even 
the  moneyed  "wets"  to  follow,  so  the  final 
three  days'  campaign  was  laid  out,  so  as  to 
be  psychologically  perfect. 

On  Thursday  a  "landslide"  ad  was  planned. 
For  Friday  the  first  talk  of  the  campaign 
on  "sentiment"  was  laid  out  and  for  Satur- 
day a  most  daring  anti-saloon  league  feat 
— one  that  almost  made  the  Lenawee  "drys" 
afraid  of  the  result — was  carefully  planned 
with  every  thought  on  the  possible  come- 
back from  "wet"  headquarters.  In  addition 
the  issuance  of  an  entire  daily  newspaper 
10 


in  the  interest  of  the  "drys"  was  scheduled. 

Thursday's  "landslide"  ad,  which,  as  was 
usual  with  each  of  the  daily  ads  appeared  in 
both  Adrian  daily  papers,  was  captioned 
"JUMP  IN  AND  WIN!"  the  four  word 
headline  stretching  clear  across  the  entire 
seven  columns  of  the  front  page  of  the  lead- 
ing paper. 

The  talk  beneath  the  caption  was  aimed 
directly  at  the  unconvinced  voter,  yet  he  was 
spoken  of  in  the  third  person — literally 
"talked  about  to  his  face."  It  was  planned 
with  a  view  to  the  psychological  effect  upon 
the  man  of  "wet"  intentions.  It  was  meant 
to  show  him  that  everybody  else  was  going 
to  vote  "dry"  and  he  oughtn't  to  be  one  of 
the  rank  outsiders.  The  effect  desired  was  to 
create  a  "wet"  panic,  if  possible,  and  bring 
about  a  general  landslide  onto  the  band- 
wagon— in  fact,  a  final  rush  for  cover,  which 
it  did  admirably  to  no  uncertain  extent.  Fol- 
lowing was  the  talk  beneath  the  headline  of 
the  "landslide"  ad: 

"You  VOTERS  who  are  dead  certain  that 
the  death  of  the  open  saloon  means  a  RICH- 
ER,  a  CLEANER  Lenawee  County — 
JUMP  INTO  THE  BREACH,  BROTH- 
ERS, AND  WIN! 

"The  Whiskey  Machine  is  ON  THE 
RUN— BACKWARDS! 

"Now  is  the  time  to  do  the  HEAVY 
WORK — with  just  a  few  hours  remaining 
— show  the  FACTS  about  local  option  en- 
forcement to  at  least  ONE  man — show  him 
how  MENTAL,  PHYSICAL  and  FINAN- 
CIAL HEALTH  invariably  follow  the  end 
of  the  saloon  in  EVERY  community — it  has 
II 


never  failed  yet — and  every  lie  of  the 
BOOZE  BARONS  is  NAILED  by  the  same 
mouth  that  told  it! 

"You  CONVINCED  VOTERS  far  out- 
number the  UNCONVINCED— now  go  af- 
ter them— show  them  the  FACTS— 
PROVE  the  TRUTH!  We've  laid  all  the 
FACTS  before  you— and  the  PROOF- 
NOW  is  the  time  to  use  them. 

"Good  Old  Lenawee  County's  citizens 
are  of  the  highest  class  mentally  in  the 
United  States— they're  VOTING  on  good, 
hard,  bed  rock  FACTS— NOT  on  the  liquor 
trust's  twisted,  garbled,  half-told  calcula- 
tion. SHOW  the  UNCONVINCED  the 
LIGHT  to  RIGHT— and  every  man  YOU 
reach  will  Vote  "YES"  on  Monday — and 
one  year  from  TODAY  he'll  thank  YOU  for 
the  advice. 

Last  Prop  Knocked  From  Under  the 
Booze  Barons! 

"At  last  the  WHISKEY  MACHINE  has 
FLOPPED— they  say  "local  option  is  a 
good  thing,  but  you  can't  enforce  it."  They 
say  they  would  be  in  favor  of  local  option 
"only  it  can't  be  enforced  and  the  saloons 
ought  to  be  regulated." 

"BUT  they've  told  it  to  the  wrong  class 
of  people — they've  told  it  to  the  people 
whose  INTELLIGENCE  makes  enforce- 
ment a  CERTAINTY!  By  telling  Lenawee 
County  citizens  we  can't  enforce  local  op- 
tion, they've  INSULTED  our  INTELLI- 
GENCE—They've  accused  YOU  and  US 
of  sneaking  into  the  side  door  of  the  "blind 
pig"  that  the  whiskey  machine  openly  ac- 
cuses itself  of  intending  to  establish! 

12 


"And  thanks  to  an  upright  community 
there  are  not  sneakers  enough  in  Good  Old 
Lenawee  to  conspire  with  and  support  the 
whiskey  machine's  "blind  pig"  for  a  minute! 
That's  why  there  will  be  no  blind  pig  in 
Lenawee!" 

As  will  be  noted  from  the  above,  a 
strong  play  was  made  upon  the  vanity  side 
and  the  way  was  paved  for  enforcement  of 
the  law  if  the  county  went  "dry." 

In  order  that  the  "wets"  might  get  no 
wind  of  the  proposed  coup,  the  issuance  of 
a  newspaper  was  not  decided  upon  until 
five  o'clock  Thursday  afternoon.  The  pa- 
per was  regular  seven  column  size,  four 
pages.  It  had  to  be  in  the  hands  of  the 
postoffice  officials  at  9:50  a.  m.  the  following 
morning  to  insure  it  being  delivered  to  the 
voters  Saturday,  for  the  postoffice  was 
flooded  with  "wet"  literature  and  the  post- 
master, with  the  rest  of  the  city  and  county 
administration  being  decidedly  "wet"  no 
loopholes  could  be  overlooked  which  might 
be  construed  to  block  the  delivery  of  the 
paper. 

Within  a  few  minutes  the  name  "Len- 
awee County  New  Era"  was  decided  upon 
for  the  paper.  With  the  newspaper  in  view, 
C.  A.  Briggs,  the  Chicago  Tribune  cartoon- 
ist, had  been  prevailed  upon  to  draw  a 
cartoon  picturing,  as  the  caption  read,  "a 
Lenawee  Business  Scene  After  May  i,"  the 
closing  date  of  the  saloons  if  the  county 
went  "dry." 

The  copy  writer  got  the  cartoon  and  all 
his  copy  into  the  hands  of  the  printers  at 
one  of  the  Adrian  newspaper  offices  by  8 
13 


o'clock  that  evening.  Linotype  men,  make- 
ups, galley-boys,  pressmen  were  kept  on  the 
job  all  night.  At  4:30  in  the  morning  the 
forms  had  been  locked  and  at  4:45  the  flatbed 
press  was  cramming  out  the  first  and  only 
edition  of  the  "Lenawee  County  New  Era." 
At  six  o'clock  the  entire  edition  of  something 
over  10,000  copies  had  been  run  off,  it  be- 
ing the  intention  to  deliver  the  paper  into 
the  hands  of  every  voter  in  Adrian  and  in 
other  extremely  "wet"  sections  of  the  coun- 
ty which  had  been  perhaps  a  little  neglected 
with  "dry"  arguments. 

Twenty-five  "dry"  •  workers  toiled 
throughout  the  night  addressing  wrappers. 
A  few  minutes  after  six  the  entire  edition 
was  loaded  into  a  covered  van,  so. that  no 
early-waking  "wets"  might  scent  the  coup, 
and  rushed  over  to  the  local  option  head^ 
quarters  where  the  dutiful  workers  were 
awaiting  them.  At  the  appointed  hour — 
9:50,  Friday  •  morning — every  copy  was  in 
the  Adrian  postoffice  and  the  next  morning 
was  in  the  hands  of  the  voters  it  was  es- 
pecially desirous  to  reach.  The  anti-saloon 
league  and  ministers  were  not  made  a  part 
of  the  New  Era  as  the  line  beneath  the  pa- 
per's title  read  "issued  by  the  business  men 
backers  of  a  great  movement  to  cure  the 
evils  of  the  open  saloon."  This  was  believed 
to  be  particularly  effective  with  the  rabid 
"wets,"  who  were  known  principally  be- 
cause they  had  the  faculty  of  absenting 
themselves  from  anything  in  which  the 
church  had  a  finger. 

The  'dry"  ad-writer  stayed  up  all  night 
to  see  the  coup  carried  off  without  a  hitch. 
14 


The  following  rilo^nift^' l-je;  feiisily- 
himself  in  the  preparation  of  the  day's  copy 
which,  according  to  the  plans  laid  out,  con- 
sisted of  a  sentimental  talk  headed,  "For 
Your  Little  One's  Sake— Vote  Yes." 

In  this  ad  the  feature  was  the  photo- 
graphic creation  of  a  peach  basket  heaped 
high  with  baby  heads — a  happy  thought — 
bearing  in  white  lettering:  "Lenawee  Coun- 
ty's Choicest  Product."  This  with  a  talk' on 
the  enticement  of  the  white  lights,  open  door 
and  music  of  the  saloon  along  with  the 
thought  that  "where  there  is  no  temptation 
there  is  no  danger,"  added  more  grease  to 
the  skids  towards  Lenawee's  water  wagon. 
Within  the  ad  were  arguments  calculated  to 
make  the  "wetest"  father  fall  into  line — 
and  from  reports  from  several  sources  the 
desired  effect  was  achieved,  for  the  son  of 
one  of  the  officials  of  the  "wet"  organiza- 
tion dropped  into  the  local  option  head- 
quarters the  same  evening  for  a  supply  of 
"dry"  posters.  Then  followed  the  intelli- 
gence that  the  official  had  resigned  from  the 
saloonists'  cause. 

On  Saturday — when  the  last  papers  before 
the  election  were  issued— the  final  bombard- 
ment that  the  "dry"  leaders  were  somewhat 
afraid  of,  was  scheduled.  It  amounted  to 
the  acknowledgment  that  no  matter  'if  Len- 
awee is  "dry"  those  who  cared  for  liquor 
could  keep  it  in  their  own  homes.  It  was 
a  rather  daring  tack  for  the  anti-saloonists 
to  take,  because  the  "wets"  had  been  con- 
stantly talking  "local  option  doesn't  pro- 
hibit," hence  the  possible  come-back  was 
indeed  to  be  dreaded.  Yet  it  meant  the 
15 


cor-r&iing  of  "hundreds  of  votes,  for  the  sa- 
loon element  had  been  preaching  to  the 
occasional  drinker  that  he  would  be  "dry" 
forevermore  if  the  county  voted  that  way. 
He  had  been  even  told  that  "he  couldn't 
even  have  alcohol  to  heat  the  baby's  milk 
in  the  morning,"  so  the  effect  gf  the  ad  was 
instantaneous,  for  it  quoted  the  Michigan 
law  on  the  subject,  quoted  from  a  test  case 
and  conveyed  unerringly,  convincingly  the 
information  that  the  citizen  still  possessed 
the  liberty  to  keep  liquor  in  his  own  home 
when  entertaining  those  who  were  in  good 
faith  his  guests. 

This  had  the  effect  of  bringing  in  many 
German  votes.  The  ad  was  aimed  primarily 
at  the  city  of  Adrian  itself,  in  which  the 
"drys"  figured  there  would  probably  be  a 
"wet"  majority  of  1,500  which  must  be  over- 
come by  the  county  vote.  So  admirably 
did  the  plan  work  out  that  the  city  of  Adrian 
itself  produced  a  "dry"  pluraity  of  its  own, 
which  paid  no  uncertain  tribute  to  the  worth 
of  the  "dry"  plan. 

In  view  of  the  fact  that  at  its  last  election 
Lenawee  County  went  overwhelmingly 
"wet"  and  that  the  "wet"  campaign  manager 
had  never  before  lost  an  election,  much  of 
the  credit  for  the  victory  must  be  given  to 
the  reason-why  copy. 

Publicity  stories  written  by  the  "dry" 
copy  writer  also  cut  a  big  figure  in  .he 
campaign.  From  five  to  eight  stories,  teem- 
ing with  real  news  value  were  handed  out 
each  day  to  the  dailies  to  be  run  on  their 
own  news  merits. 

16 


YA  00915 


.Ha 


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